Back-to-Nature Scarf

Not long ago I attended a seminar in which the speaker asked, "How many of you can tell me what phase the moon is in today without looking at your smartphones?" His point was that once the moon was so important to people that they would plant their crops by it, set their calendars by it, and time their festivals by it; and now, we rarely even look at it. That is a testament to how disconnected we've become to the natural world in which we live.

I've since been making an effort to spend more time in nature, and this was the state of mind I was in when I came across Marie Segares of Underground Crafter's Temperature Scarf. The idea is that every day for one year, you crochet one row in a color that corresponds to the temperature for that day. What a wonderful way to make one think about nature each day! Marie made her original scarf back in 2013, but she recently put together a detailed guide on how to plan your own temperature scarf, which you can find here.

I've been thinking about how I'd like to do my scarf, and Marie has been gracious enough to grant me permission to post about my version. For starters, I knew I wanted to incorporate the phases of the moon somehow, since that's what got me thinking about getting back to nature in the first place. I also wanted to use the day's low temperature (most temperature scarves appear to only use the day's high) so that I could incorporate more colors into it. It also took me a while to figure out which stitch pattern I wanted to use, because I really liked Marie's idea to use longer stitches for longer days, but it was a challenge to find something that would look good on both sides.

With all of this in mind, I was finally able to produce a swatch to use as a guide for my Back-to-Nature Scarf.

The white represents the day's moon phase (more white = fuller moon) while the colors represent the day's temperatures. Based on this swatch, I calculate that my finished scarf will be about... 14 feet long. But! I think I'm going to stop at 7 feet (6 months), start a new scarf, and sew both of them together lengthwise to make a scarf only 7 feet long.

If anyone would like to do this crazy project with me, I will be starting mine on January 1st and will post monthly updates to keep me on track. This is the pattern I will be using. It's not tested and purely experimental, but I think it will be a lot of fun. And of course, you're also welcome to create your own pattern using Marie's suggestions as a guide.

Basic Directions: Work two rows each day for a year: one row for the high temperature, and one row for the low temperature and moon phase. If a shorter scarf is desired, finish off the scarf after six months, start a new scarf, and sew them together lengthwise.

First Two Rows

Winter Start

Row 1. In the high temperature color, ch 25. Sc in second ch from hook, ch 1, sc in next ch, *skip next ch, sc in next ch, ch 1, sc in next ch; rep from * across to last ch. Sc in last ch. 8 shells.

Summer StartRow 1. In the high temperature color, ch 27. Dc in fourth ch from hook, ch 1, dc in next ch, *skip next ch, dc in next ch, ch 1, dc in next ch; rep from * across to last ch. Dc in last ch. 8 shells.

Spring/Autumn StartRow 1. In the high temperature color, ch 26. Hdc in third ch from hook, ch 1, hdc in next ch, *skip next ch, hdc in next ch, ch 1, hdc in next ch; rep from * across to last ch. Hdc in last ch. 8 shells.

In this scarf, the moon phases are represented by the number of white shells in the Low Temperature Row. Work the color changes as follows (feel free to adjust the number of white shells so that it changes more gradually).

New Moon. Work all eight shells in the low temperature color.

Waxing Crescent. Work the first two shells in white and the remaining shells in the low temperature color.

First Quarter. Work the first four shells in white and the remaining shells in the low temperature color.

Waxing Gibbous. Work the first six shells in white and the remaining shells in the low temperature color.

Full Moon. Work all eight shells in white.

Waning Gibbous. Work the first two shells in the low temperature color and the remaining shells in white.

Last Quarter. Work the first four shells in the low temperature color and the remaining shells in white.

Waning Crescent. Work the first six shells in the low temperature color and the remaining shells in white.